Unit 1 (Natural Sciences)
Inquiry

feeder 1A / feeder 1B / unit project 1

This unit will approach disability issues from a bio-medical perspective, providing opportunities to research, summarize, and analyze. We will also move among different target audiences as we progress across the unit's three assignments, audiences which will shape not only what material we include in a given assignment, but the manner in which we convey that information.

Feeder 1A: Encyclopedia-Style Entries
Purpose: to provide a concise, objective overview of one cause of your group's assigned disability
Audience: an "outsider," non-professional audience unfamiliar with this cause
Writing Foci: concision, "logos"

Create a compact (150-200 words), encyclopedia-style entry on your assigned topic, tracing its initial and long-term impact on the afflicted sense or ability. Each student in your group will research a different cause of the same kind of dysfunction. This entry will privilege a logical, science-based approach to the topic, avoiding pathos and ethos as much as possible (though I imagine the use of certain shocking statistics may evoke an unavoidable emotional response from the reader). Avoid any anecdotes or storytelling, and employ your cleanest, tightest prose style.

Shape your entry according to the following formula:

• 1-2 sentences providing a clinical/technical definition of the condition (its visible manifestation)
• 2 sentences describing cause/onset & likely progress of the condition
• 2-3 sentences discussing relevant socialization & communication or mobility issues
• minimize overlap among these three categories

Use your own words whenever possible: this assignment 2-3 instances of of quoting or close paraphrasing, accompanied by CBE-style in-text citations (see St. Martin's Handbook, section 22, pp.480-88). Following your paragraph should be a short, CBE-style “References” section that lists those professional sources from which you derived information, at least two of which you will locate in the stacks of either Davis Library or the Health Sciences Library (see map for locations).

Submission of your final draft (sent to me as an attachment) will be accompanied by photocopies or printed sheets of the sources used (handed to me in class), with pertinent passages highlighted. Upon receiving peer feedback, refine your paragraphs and return them to me. I will publish your final drafts on a class reference page we will use throughout the semester. Go here for a sample assignment.

draft for workshop: Thurs, Aug 31
final draft due: Tues, Sept 5

Feeder 1B: Brochure
Purpose: to inform, caution, and explain treatment options
Audience: adults directly involved in the care of relations with a given disability (assume your audience has some practical--but not clinical--knowledge of the topic). This audience will constitute something between an "insider" and "outsider" audience, but closer to the latter
Writing Foci: organization, "ethos," effective melding of aesthetic and textual concerns

Create an attractive brochure that presents basic information on your assigned disability in a reader-friendly format. As with feeder 1A, your brochure should cover the condition’s progress over time, its possible impact on those with this diagnosis, and socialization or communication issues likely to accompany this disability. This time, you will add a section that explains a particular service available at the (obviously fictional) institution where you work; this service could involve counseling, physical therapy, skills-building, a drug regimen, or perhaps education and behavior management (for someone with an intellectual disability). You will adopt the voice of a doctor or therapist, an "insider" instructing an "outsider" audience only imperfectly aware of what the disability involves.

This assignment requires the use of two rhetorical devices:

• adopt an ethical tone that works to establish your credibility as both a professional and a humanitarian who cares
• insert 2-3 explanatory analogies, creative metaphors and similes that help your "outsider" reader understand what might otherwise seem pretty technical or abstract concepts

One should be able to read the brochure in 4-5 minutes. You have free reign concerning the visual format, but graphics should accentuate and accompany your text, not overwhelm it. On the back panel, include information concerning how the reader might contact you at your workplace if they have questions.

draft for workshop: Tues, Sept 12
final draft due: Thurs, Sept 14

Unit Project 1: Journal-Style Essay
Purpose: to inform, evoke emotion, and call to action
Audience: an "insider" audience of general practitioners whom you are reminding about the distinctive qualities of a disability, and to whom you are trying to "sell" a particular treatment option
Writing foci: active voice, "pathos"

paper conferences in my office (Greenlaw 405)

Construct a 4-6 page, CBE-style paper in which you again explore causes, progress, effects, and “treatment” of your chosen disability, this time elaborating a bit more with statistics, theories, and opinions drawn from a variety of professional sources (journal articles, etc.). Your persona should be that of an insider speaking to insiders. More specifically, you should assume an audience of general practitioners accustomed to reading the journal in which your article appears, professionals used to reading dry, scientific prose whom you will attempt to "awaken" to the importance of the treatment option your are promoting.

The first and largest section of your paper should adopt a rather matter-of-fact tone that conveys the basic information about your disability in a manner familiar to your target audience. Given your "insider" audience, you can assume a certain familiarity with technical terms and biological processes; consider your function here to be reminding them of that which they once learned in medical school.

The second portion of the paper will promote your chosen treatment option. As with feeder 1B, this may be educational, therapeutic, medicinal, or behavioral. This time, however, you will create a short, "pathetic" narrative about someone with your assigned disability, and then explain how the particular treatment option you are promoting would be a feasible option for him/her (or their caregivers).

Be sure to reference 5-7 sources, and include a CBE-style "References" section.

draft for workshop: Thurs, Sept 21
final draft due: Tues, Sept 26

Praxinoscope (Émile Reynaud)
1877, version with crank handle

Paul Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu